UNDERSTANDING HEGEL
OR: NO MORE THESIS — ANTITHESIS — SYNTHESIS
Win Corduan
This site is another compilation based on articles from my blog a while ago with some additions and— hopefully— clarifications. Given the relative informality of this site, if you want to read or cite a more formal presentation, please see my article "The Theology of Hegel" in the Journal of the International Society of Christian Apologetics 17(2026):77-101. The articles don't have separate links, so you'll have to scroll down the text until you get to my article.
| A Note on Style and Formatting:
The standard background color is the light blue you see above and below. Indented quotations and the occasional crucial points have a yellow background. "Stacks," such as reminiscences and background material will have the slight green color of this paragraph. They are intended to takes us one step back from the flow of the argument or description to provide illustrations, explanations, or possibly short humorous interludes. I have retained the informal style of the blog, which was modelled on my classroom teaching style, but I have removed the diary-like entries and other discussions not germane to the topic, except for a few allusions and decorative pictures. I have also tried to create a narrative that keeps on flowing without being getting derailed too badly by textual matters. I give credit wherever appropriate, but the main flow of the story is found in Hegel's books themselves and the information is freely available in the sources listed at the end. |
One of my goals is to emphasize that, in order to understand Hegel, we need to recognize his roots in the philosophical method initiated by Kant: the "transcendental method." Hegel himself made this point clear (in the "Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit—coming up later on this site). If your reaction to this statement is, "Well, yeah, of course Hegel will fit in with his surrounding context," or maybe just "duh," you may just be well on your way to a correct understanding of Hegel yourself. Unfortunately, as obvious as it sounds, you will also find yourself in a minority. Hegel continues to be understood by and large in any possible way except the most obvious.